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OUR COUNTRY'S TROUBLES, NO. II. 

OR 

NATIONAL SINS AND NATIONAL RETRIBUTION. 



A 



SERMON 



PREACHED IN THE 



CHURCH OF THE COVENANT, 



PHILADELPHIA, JULY 5, 1857. 



BY THF 

REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG, 

B£ C T OB. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
WILLIAM S. k ALFRED MARTIEN, 

No. 606 Chestnut Street. 
1864. 



-^33 



•T^& 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

DUDLEY A. TYNG, 

la the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and for 
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 






SERMON. 



" At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a 

KINGDOM, TO BUILD AND TO PLANT IT ; IP IT DO EVIL IN MY SIGHT, THAT IT OBEY NOT 
MY "VOICE, THEN I WILL REPENT OF THE GOOD WHEREWITH I SAID I WOULD BENEFIT 

THEM." — Jer. xviii. 9, 10. 

"They HAVE sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." — Hos. 
viii. 7. 

"The Lord SPAKE thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that 

I SHOULD NOT WALK IN THE WAY OF THIS PEOPLE, SAYING, SAY YE NOT, A CONFED- 
ERACY, TO ALL THEM TO WHOM THIS PEOPLE SHALL SAY, A CONFEDERACY; NEITHER 
FEAR YE THEIR FEAR, NOR BE AFRAID. SANCTIFY THE LoRD OP HOSTS HiMSELF ; 
AND LET Him BE YOUR FEAR, AND LET HiM BE YOUR DREAD. AnD He SHALL BE FOR 

a sanctuary ; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to 
both the houses of israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabihants of 
Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, 

AND be snared, AND BE TAKEN. BiND UP THE TESTIMONY, SEAL THE LAW AMONG MY 

DISCIPLES." — Isa. viii. 11 — 16. 

I HAVE read these three passages of Scripture because 
together they present a subject whose full scope is 
reached by neither. They all concern God's providen- 
tial government over His people Israel as a nation. The 
first declares God's absolute sovereignty over nations, 
and the retributive justice with which He will make 
His purpose and dealings correspondent with their own 
doings. The second, from Hosea, relates to the sins of 
the ten tribes of Israel, and declares that, as they had 
sown, so should they reap ; their sin itself becoming the 
source of chastisement. The third, from Isaiah, ad- 



dressed to Jiidah at a time of great national distress, 
contains God's pointed rebuke of their policy of deliver- 
ance, with an indication of their true refuge and of the 
duty of His faithful disciples. Taken together, they 
present us with the subject of God's providential rela- 
tion to nations, especially in regard to National sins and 
their retribution. 

After the very emphatic command to the prophet Isa- 
iah, publicly to oppose and rebuke the iniquitous policy 
of his countrymen, no apology, I presume, is required 
from a teacher of religion for directing attention to na- 
tional sins. Should any be demanded, I have none to 
offer. A year ago I felt it necessary to preface an appli- 
cation of religious principle to public policy by an argu- 
ment for the right and duty of the course. The unseemly 
interruption which ensued, and the public discussions of 
the rights and province of the pulpit thereby occasioned, 
have caused a careful review of the general principle 
and of the particular discourse. I cannot abate one 

hair's breadth of the position then ASSU3IED. In full 

view of its results to myself and others, I can feel noth- 
ing but thankfulness for the opportunity of preaching 
with all boldness what my calmest re-considered judg- 
ment pronounces simply the truth of God. The storm 
of opposition has only given currency to the views of 
the sermon, and confirmed the freedom of the pulpit in 
the consciences of thousands of God's ministers and of 
hundreds of thousands of His people. The public ver- 
dict on the case has enfranchised the sacred desk. God 
grant that those privileged to stand therein may never 



shun to declare the whole counsel of God, whether men 
will hear or whether they will forbear. 

Without apology, therefore, or defence, I call your 
attention to the subject which our texts set before us. 

I. We will consider, first, the general principles 
which they establish. The application of these princi- 
ples will form the second head of our discourse. 

1. These passages of Scripture, then, teach us God's 
sovereignty over nations. By this I mean His absolute 
power and control over their existence and destiny, and 
His supreme appointment of all the good or evil which 
they receive. Their origin and progress, decay and dis- 
solution, and all the fortunes and interests which lie 
between, depend absolutely upon Him. This was the 
truth specially impressed upon Jeremiah in the passage 
quoted from him as a text. " The word came to Jere- 
miah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the 
potter's house, and there will I cause thee to hear my 
words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, 
behold, he wrought a work upon the wheels. And the 
vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of 
the potter : so he made it again another vessel, as seemed 
good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the 
Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I 
do with you as the potter \ saith the Lord. Behold, as 
the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, 
O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak con- 
cerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck 
up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ; if that nation, 
against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil. 



6 

I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, 
and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; if 
it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I 
will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit 
them." Humbling enough to human pride may this 
doctrine be; but it has the sanction of history as well 
as of inspiration. "We look back with pride on the hero- 
ism of our national origin, apd the splendor of our pro- 
gress ; we speculate on the causes of our growth, and 
complacently discuss the elements of our character and 
policy; but we must go higher for the cause of our 
causes, and the origin of our elements, even to Him who, 
while He hangeth the earth upon nothing, has " made 
its round orb so sure that it cannot be moved." It was 
the eternal purpose of God to raise up a republic for a 
home of the oppressed, and a source of liberty and reli- 
gion to the world. And therefore, hath He spoken 
concerning our nation, " to build and to plant it." But 
He can as easily speak concerning it, " to pluck up, and 
to pull down, and to destroy." And where, then, would 
be our boasted strength and progress 1 

2. Again, our texts teach us that God will take note 
of national offences. "We are prone enough to forget 
that God will take note of any iniquities. But there is 
an indefiniteness in the action of multitudes which in- 
creases the tendency. We lose our identity in the 
crowd, and think lightly of our individual responsibility 
for what is the action of the whole. Yet God loses not 
sight of it. He never has forgotten, and never will for- 



get, public iniquities. The history of His chosen nation 
is not peculiar in this respect. It is peculiar only in 
having the light of inspiration thrown upon this feature 
for the instruction of mankind. All other nations have 
been, and will be, dealt with alike. No matter how 
high their privileges, or how glorious their progress, be 
sure their sin will find them out. God's book of re- 
membrance will be a swift witness against them. " At 
what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and 
concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; if it do 
evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will 
repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit 
them." 

3. Another principle here declared is, that God's 
dealings with nations involve a present retribution. In- 
dividual responsibility for public action will come out to 
light at a future tribunal; and eternity will bear witness 
to the omniscient justice wherewith each participator in 
the sin shall receive his reward. To that tribunal let all 
the nation, high and low, leaders and led, deceivers and 
deceived, solemnly look forward. For "God will bring 
every work into judgment, with every secret thing; 
whether it be good, or whether it be evil." 

But, besides this individual and eternal retribution of 
all joint sins, there is also a present and national one. 
God's justice is complete. And, therefore, those aggre- 
gations of men which will not survive the present world 
are dealt with in it. Whether it be a nation, or a com- 
munity, or corporation, God will administer justice be- 
fore its dissolution, and make manifest even here that, 



" though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go un- 
punished." The present retribution is a corporate one ; 
that is, it overtakes the guilty in the peculiar relation 
wherein they were associated in their crime. And 
coming thus, it holds the whole relationship to account. 
Whether it be institution, community, or nation, it suf- 
fers penalty as such ; and, therefore, the innocent suffer 
with the guilty. The body corporate suffers, and all its 
parts must sympathize. When ruin follows public fraud, 
or war or pestilence scourges a guilty nation, there is 
no discrimination among the members. The joint rela- 
tionship implicates in the corporate act even the igno- 
rant and the protesting; and for the corporate act they 
must corporately suffer. Beyond this, the account will 
be made straight at the day of judgment. In this world, 
I said, they must corporately suffer. And yet, in truth, 
the suffering even here is individual; for it is still in 
individual feeling and interest, though by means of a 
corporate relationship. A nation is but an aggregate of 
individuals ; its welfare, of individual welfares ; its mis- 
ery, of individual miseries. When it sins, it is the sin of 
individuals ; either of a majority, or of the whole through 
their representatives. When it is chastised, the blow, 
wherever and whatsoever, must fall on individual homes 
and hearts. A besieged city refuses to capitulate. Fa- 
mine and pillage make no discrimination in their vic- 
tims. And thus in God's retribution of nations, we see 
the strange spectacle of unwilling and protesting pri- 
vates overwhelmed in ruin, while guilty leaders make 
their escape; or we see another generation made to suf- 



9 

fer for the sins of their fathers. Seem the scales un- 
balanced'? They will be equalized hereafter. The 
design, meanwhile, is to deepen the concern of the good 
for public action, by the knowledge that they must 
share its results. Otherwise, they might yield to dis- 
gust at collision with the bad, and, assured of their 
own escape, leave the community to itself. 

Thus does God hold communities to a present retri- 
bution. The eternal principle of His rule of nations is, 
"Kighteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach 
to any people." 

4. Another principle here taught is, that in this retri- 
bution, the sin itself soivs the seed of punishment. " They 
have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirl- 
wind." The process of sowing and reaping in the moral 
world is unceasing. It is the grand principle of God's 
retributive government. We see it every day in the 
development of individual character, and the influence, 
through social relations, of past action on present condi- 
tion. Visibly, "whatsoever a man soweth, that doth 
he also reap!" And we are divinely assured that the 
process which we see continuing down to the very close 
of life is uninterrupted by death, and increases with 
eternity. " He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh 
reap corruption ; and he that soweth to the spirit, shall 
of the spirit reap life everlasting." The same process, 
on a wider scale, is carried on in the moral government 
of nations. Public virtue results in kindred prosperity. 
And nations that have sown the wind, reap the whirl- 
wind. The fundamental reason in all these cases, is the 



10 

same. Sin is the great disorganizer. It violates the 
law of God — everywhere the condition of welfare; and 
throws open the door for the misery which God's law 
would have prevented. Whether it breeds disease and 
anguish in the human body, drops into the soul the 
worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched, 
tears out the heart of domestic bliss, or sweeps over 
society with the whirwind of lust, and crime, and 
anarchy, the principle is one and the same. God has 
thus put a brand on sin that men may know it. No- 
where can it be harmless. Nowhere sigh with such a 
zephyr softness over beds of wild flowers, that it will 
not return in the whirlwind to uproot the trees it was 
allowed to kiss. No crevice is too small for it to enter; 
no structure too massive for it to overthrow. No " agree- 
ment with hell" can restrain it; and no "confederacy" 
of sinners can keep it back. Every page of history is 
full of the records of its insidious approaches, its final 
and ruthless desolations. Nations great and strong 
have gone down into the deep with the millstone of 
their own iniquities about their necks. Goodly temples 
of liberty have crumbled and sunk in the swollen sins of 
the votaries they protected. Nor is there aught in our 
own too glorious and strong to be dismantled by the 
whirlwind, if by transient gain or pleasure we are 
wooed to sow the wind. 

5. Another principle involved is the efficacy of na- 
tional repentance. Nowhere in this world is sin an 
irremediable evil. Such efficacy hath that remedy of 
an atoning Saviour which God himself hath provided. 



11 

On the infinite redemption effected by His cross all 
probation, individual, and national, is founded. With- 
out this ransom, efficacious even in promise, blank deso- 
lation had for the first sin swept the earth. But He who 
in the hour of "man's first disobedience" said, "Deliver 
him from going down into the pit, for I have found a 
ransom," has by every sinner's side been ever since say- 
ing the same. And through His precious bloodshed- 
ding are " repentance and remission of sins" still pro- 
claimed in this guilty world. For His sake doth God 
accept the prayer of the penitent, and turn away His 
anger from those who for their iniquities deserve to be 
punished. "At what instant I shall speak concern- 
ing a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, 
and to pidl down, and to destroy it; if the nation 
against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, 
I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto 
them." 

6. Still another lesson here taught is the influence 
and work of the Lord's disciples in respect to national 
transgressions, and especially of his messengers, the 
prophets. We have already seen how the retributions 
of Providence for national sins involve " the precious" 
with " the vile." We have seen, also, that the design 
is to nerve the servants of God to earnest and persistent 
efforts for national reform. God will not allow them to 
separate themselves from the community, if they would. 
For after having staked out the path of duty by pre- 
cepts. He has hedged it up with the thorns of a common 
retribution. What is this line of duty] 



1^ 

Distinct and avowed separation from every unrighteous 
'public policy. " Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them 
to whom (or in all those things in which) this people 
shall say, A confederacy ; neither fear ye their fear, nor 
be afraid." This referred to the confederacy of Syria 
and Ephraim — one part of Israel, against Judah — the 
other part ; of which confederacy were treacherous parti- 
sans in Judah itself, weakening the people by enlarging 
on the dangers of resistance. Unrighteous public poHcy 
is always " a confederacy," — a confederacy between 
diverse principles and interests, engineered by unscru- 
pulous men on the basis of selfish fear. There is no 
unity among wicked men. They can work together 
only under outward pressure. Their only scheme of 
public policy is " a confederacy" which shall bribe some, 
and bully others into some temporary expedient against 
immediate defeat — a confederacy without coherence, 
and falling to pieces when it can no longer be bullied 
by " chimeras dire," or bribed with loaves and fishes. 
Against every such " confederacy," sacrificing truth 
and right for supposed expediency, God's people must 
take open stand. 

They are also to come boldly out for the right assailed. 
"Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be 
your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be 
for a sanctuary." The treacherous confederates of 
Judah had no faith in the providence of God, and coun- 
selled the quieting of Ephraim by inglorious submission. 
Base souls were they who would rather purchase 
personal ease or profit by succumbing to wrong, than 



13 

venture a conflict with, "the two tails of those smoking 
fire-brands," even though the God of Israel was their 
helper. Hence the command, " Sanctify the Lord of 
hosts himself;" honor God by obedience and depend- 
ence. " Let him be your fear, and let him be your 
dread." " Fear not them who can kill the body, but 
after that have no more than they can do ; but fear him 
who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Be 
as much controlled by the fear of God in public as in 
private concerns. " And he shall be for a sanctuary." 
You shall find him an all-sufficient refuge, whatever the 
threatened danger. That is, God's people are to adhere 
simply to Him in every complication, and against all 
odds. There are no emergencies which render right 
wrong, or wrong right. There is no expediency which 
can justify departure from principle. There is no com- 
plication of dangers which can render it unsafe to do 
right. Syria may be confederate with Ephraim — foreign 
invasion with sectional apostasy: and Judah, through 
timidity and treachery in her own children, may be 
brought very low: but the cause of Judah is the cause 
of God, and therefore the " Lord of hosts himself" " shall 
be for a sanctuary," if He be sanctified among His 
disciples. 

Preeminent among God's people stood the prophet. 
His was a special work in the conflict of principle. He 
says, "The Lord spake to me with a strong hand" 
(this refers to a special and unusually strong pressure of 
the prophetic inspiration, impelling him to prophesy,) 
" and instructed me that I should not walk in the way 



14 

of this people, saying, say ye not, A confederacy, to all 
tliem to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; 
neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid." It was made 
his special and imperative duty to prophesy against the 
policy of his countrymen. All alone might he stand in 
lifting up his voice for truth. Threatening combi- 
nations might forbid his message. "A confederacy" 
might be formed to thrust him out of Jerusalem, and 
punish his presumption. Yet he must lift up his voice, 
and spare not, and cry aloud for truth, and righteousness, 
and God ; and most of all, denounce the temporizing 
expediency which would surrender principle to escape 
conflict. If the people would hear him, well. If other- 
wise, he must not blench at popular disfavor, nor speak 
with bated breath, but testify still to such servants of the 
Lord as would give heed. " Bind up the testimony, 
seal the law among my disciples." They might be a mere 
handful ; but the hollow of an Almighty hand inclosed 
them. The same Saviour God would be "a sanctuary" to 
them and " a stone of stumbling, and a rock of off'ence to 
both the houses of Israel" (aggressive Ephraim and suc- 
cumbing Judah,) and " a gin and a snare to the inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem" (the time-serving populace of their 
metropolitan city.) "And many among them shall 
stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be 
taken." Thus at last "wickedness should be broken as 
a tree." 

We have thus considered the general principles 
respecting national sins, retribution, and duty, which 
are contained in our text. 



15 

II. It now remains for us, secondly, to apply these 
PRINCIPLES TO OURSELVES. Are there no public wrongs to 
make us fear the just judgment of God ? Are there no 
signs that God is repenting of the good wherewith He 
said He would benefit US'? Are there no indications 
that we have "sown the wind, and are beginning to 
reap the whirlwind"?" Are there no policies sacrificing 
righteousness to a visionary expediency which require 
the prophets of the Lord to cry out against that to 
which the people are saying, "A Confederacy'?" He 
reads not the signs of the times as I, who denies it. 
Others must judge of their duty for themselves. To 
their own master they stand or fall. But in the con- 
victions of my own conscience, " the Lord hath spoken 
unto me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I 
should not walk in the way of this people;" and with 
whatever imaginations others may terrify themselves 
from open rebuke of wrong, "neither to fear their 
fear, nor be afraid." I have no other purpose than to 
"sanctify the Lord of hosts himself;" "and He shall be 
for a sanctuary," though foes may threaten, and friends 
depart. 

How have we sinned"? What signs of retribution'? 
Where have we sown the wind"? And where lowers 
the resulting whirlwind "? 

1. We have sown the wind oi financial recklessness^ 
and may reap the whirlwind oi financial ruin. 

Two things have marked the social and commercial 
spirit of the day. One is universal haste to be rich, 
stimulating wildest speculation. Men are no more con- 



tented with the legitimate avails of labor. Prosperity 
has turned the head with visions of sudden wealth. 
Success of a few has blinded the many, until they rush 
headlong into hair-brained speculation. Men forsake 
their accustomed callings, and draw out their capital 
from tried investments, impatient of slow and safe 
returns. Mechanics drop their tools, farmers sell their 
land, gentlemen and maid-servants draw out their 
savings, and launch upon the rapids of commercial 
hazard, following with eager prow, midst sunken rocks, 
the trained and cunning gamblers who lure them on to 
ruin. No journal of the day records how many go 
down in total wreck; but every accidental prize is 
trumpeted from Dan to Beersheba, to stimulate unholy 
greed. It began with the accession of California, and 
has received fresh impetus by every opening of western 
lands. Men have bought and sold, and reduplicated on 
town lots existing only on paper, and farm lands under 
water. Trade has overbid production, until the sinews 
of progress are weakened, and the ratio of produce to 
population declines amidst inflation of paper fortunes. 
Inordinate, impatient, self-defeating haste to be rich, is 
now the marked feature of our people. 

With this has naturally gone a second trait — profuse 
and reckless extravagance. "Light come, light go," is 
the old proverb. Spendthrift wasting follows toilless 
gain. Vanity and ambition keep up their vulgar 
rivalry. Desperate commercial gamblers build splen- 
did palaces to swell an inflated credit; and envious 
wives and daughters, with the cry of the horse-leech, 



17 

goad harassed husbands to more reckless ventures. All 
classes rush into debt, spend before they make, mort- 
gage crops unsown, and stimulate the excessive imports 
which stop the waterwheels of forge and loom, and 
send abroad the money which should feed the workmen. 
The South runs in debt to the North, the West to the 
East, the country to the town, the nation to Europe. 

Thus have we "sown the wind." And sagacious 
eyes discern the "whirlwind." Confidence is shaken; 
money rates increase; reputea fr tunes collapse under 
the pressure; and the bounty of a forgotten God in 
unwonted harvests is the declared sole hope of weather- 
ing the crisis. Retrenchment and patient industry 
have become, more than ever. Christian duties. Extra- 
vagance and speculation have grown to crimes which 
must not go unchallenged of the pulpit. 

2. We " have sown the wind" of party spirit, and are 
beginning to reap the whirlwind of public demoraliza- 
tion and anarchy. 

Political faction is the bane of a republic. Men 
learn to value name and power more than truth and 
principle. Parties cease to be embodiments of diverse 
principles, working out governmental harmony from 
opposing forces, and become mere confederacies for 
success. Party triumph becomes the mainspring of 
political action to the multitude; and unscrupulous 
demagogues engineer a " confederacy" upon the princi- 
ples of arithmetic. The result is a constant pandering 
to evil cliques, for the sake of political support. The 
better class are apathetic; the worse, exacting. Rulers 
2 



18 

dare not enforce law at the cost of popularity ; and the 
ramifications of public office are prostituted into politi- 
cal machinery. The process goes on from year to year, 
from bad to worse. No party dares honesty at the risk 
of defeat. And good citizens complain of the wrong 
on the streets, and indorse it at the polls. Thus have 
we " sown the wind" of party-worship. 

And we are fast " reaping the whirlwind" of public 
demoralization and anarchy. We are fast coming to 
this — that no laws can be enforced against any class 
whose numbers and coherence give power at the polls. 
Look at New York, with its city government in league 
with thieves, and publicans, and prostitutes, and wield- 
ing its immense expenditures of public money for poli- 
tical bribery and private peculation, while crime stalks 
unabashed along the streets. Look at California, so 
ridden and robbed by political sharpers and bullies, that 
a Vigilance Committee and Lynch Law became the 
only remedy of virtue against the tyranny of vice. 
Look at our own city. See our license laws set at 
nought, and dramshops steaming out their hell-fire on 
the Sabbath-day, because no administration holds its 
popularity so cheap as to attempt correction. See our 
fire department given up to rowdyism and inefficiency, 
while other cities, by horse-draught and steam-pumps, 
have rendered fires noiseless, and conflagrations impos- 
.sible; because the votes of the bruisers, usurping its 
control, are too important to be lost. See that infa- 
mous villain, who has violated our neutrality laws, 
desolated a sister republic with war and rapine, and 



19 

deceived, oppressed, murdered thousands of his own 
countrymen inveigled into his grasp, covering up his 
incompetence and cowardice by ostentatious travel and 
receptions, like a returning patriot, and going un whip- 
ped of justice, because men in power think his crime 
too strong in sectional approval to be safely challenged. 
Look at equal enormities still justified and upheld 
in Kansas by the supreme power of the land, while 
packed juries say of diaoblic murder, "Not guilty;" 
and collusive judges are retained upon the judgment- 
seat. Why 1 Because men in high position have any 
sympathy with bloodshed'? No; but because the par- 
tisans to whom they have said, "A confederacy," will 
not allow retreat. God forbid that the prophets should 
cease to cry against a policy which, by confederating 
foreign license with sectional fanaticism, is resolved to 
rule or ruin. 

3. We have "sown the wind" by temporizing with 
wrong for supposed expediency^ and we are " reaping the 
whirlwind" in the aggravation of the wrong itself and 
the very dangers whence we sought escape. 

It has been thus with the spirit of aggression on 
neighboring States. Public honor and public interest 
required it to be nipped in the bud. The first fiUibus- 
tering crew should have been made to expiate their 
crime by the fullest rigor of the law. Fear of sectional 
offence induced a temporizing policy. They were 
allowed to slip through the fingers of the law, and on 
defeat, delivered by national entreaty. We " sowed the 



20 

wind" in Cuba, and behold we are "reaping the whirl- 
wind" in Central America! 

It has been thus with the adulterous and Ishmaelitic 
crew of Mormons. Their debaucheries and villany 
should have been snuffed out at once by a virtuous gov- 
ernment. A virtuous people should have risen in 
majesty, and required it of their rulers. Instead of this, 
we temporized with the wrong. We suffered them to 
grow unchecked, to settle afar from oversight, and work 
out their abominations in the heart of a wilderness. 
Collisions and robbery went unrebuked. Insult and 
defiance of federal authority met concession instead of 
punishment. Their arch-traitor was appointed Gov- 
ernor. The husband of a dozen wives sat unrebuked 
in Congress. And behold ! we are now boldly defied, 
and implacable hostility to Gentiles is openly proclaimed 
and practised. Bloodshed is fast becoming the only 
remedy. Yet the merciful promptitude which might 
still prevent it is still wanting. The army which should 
bring them to their senses, beleaguers and threatens a 
peaceful town for party capital; while demagogues on 
stump and paper are feeling the public conscience with 
the mischievous assertion that the " religious usage" of 
adultery is beyond federal control. We have "sown 
the wind" in Nauvoo and Missouri, and we are beginning 
to " reap the whirlwind" in Utah. 

It has been thus with slavery. It was introduced 
into the country against the will of the colonists. In 
the inauguration of our blood-bought liberties, it was 
confessed a sad anomaly and shame, as well as a national 



21 

disaster. The author of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence felt its inconsistency with the charter of human 
rights, and spoke as no southern man now dares to speak. 
The " Father of his Country" deplored its existence, and 
labored for its removal. But fierce remonstrance came 
from interested men, and union of all the colonies on 
the basis of manumission could not be had. Principle 
and expediency were in collision. Would to God our 
fathers had possessed the faith in Him to act out con- 
viction, and eschew " a confederacy" at cost of principle. 
Union might have been delayed, but when attained, 
would have thrown no apple of discord among the sister 
States. God would have defended the right, and pos- 
terity would have escaped the reaping of the whirlwind. 
But they stood the shock of battles, to be dismayed by 
the chimera of domestic discord. After daring death 
for asserted right, they were misled by a supposed expe- 
diency to temporize with acknowledged wrong. With 
the so common error that evil will wear out itself, for 
which this case afforded more than common ground of 
hope, they bequeathed to future generations the task of 
righting the oppressed. Misfounded hope, that the 
devil will hang himself, if given rope ! No temporizing 
with a wrong can stand. It roots itself the deeper in 
corrupt humanity, and demands more room. Collision 
constantly ensues at every point of its widening circum- 
ference. Wrong, grown haughty by indulgence, more 
imperiously demands concession; and conscience, weak- 
ened by compromise, yields more cravenly than ever. 
It was so here. Slavery, under death-sentence by the 



22 

Declaration of Independence and public sentiment of a 
young republic, begged and blustered for reprieve. It 
would be shrived before its execution. Emboldened by- 
its quick success, it demanded nourishment for twenty 
years by man-stealing. Weakened by their first con- 
cession, the blood-stained champions of freedom yielded 
this. With evasive phrase, dictated by secret shame, 
they enacted bondage to the slave, and furlough to the 
slave trade. Expediency triumphed over principle. 
And now mark the consequence. Not one hundred 
years have gone by since that first concession ; yet under 
the pressure of that first wrong step, we have for 
transient peace successively conceded to that growing 
wrong, the fertile fields of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ala- 
bama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis- 
souri. We have conceded Texas. We have conceded 
liberty to hunt and kidnap men over all free soil. We 
have conceded abrogation of the law protecting any 
portion of our territory from the curse of bondage. We 
have stolen two generations of innocent and helpless 
children, besides the one our fathers kidnapped on the 
coast of Africa, and ten in the place of every one. Yet 
the difficulty has not abated. We have now to deal with 
the problem of four millions of slaves instead of four 
hundred thousand. Instead of shame-faced apologies 
for an inherited and involuntary evil, we have to deal 
with a new-fangled theology, begotten by interest, which 
justifies slavery by Divine Revelation, and a new-fangled 
jurisprudence, instilled by political ambition, which 
crushes all men in colored skin into constitutional non- 



23 

entity. And fiercer threatenings of disunion and civil 
war than ever frightened our forefathers encounter the 
refusal of permission to tyrannize at will in Kansas, the 
resentment of the decision which is paving the way for 
transporting slaves into sovereign States against their 
will, and the permission of free speech on free soil to 
those who in God's name rebuke the "confederacy" 
which is working all these abominations. The press, 
the pulpit, Christian missions, and Christian publica- 
tion societies, are all challenged to submit, and the 
Church of God is riven asunder to silence its witness 
against the direst of wrongs. Verily, our fathers 
"sowed the wind" in the tremors of national weakness, 
and we, their descendants, in the day of national vigor, 
are compelled to "reap the whirlwind." Who can 
foresee the end] Or how can we put limits to the 
swelling evil, save through the teaching of the pro- 
phet 1 "Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to 
whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither 
fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of 
hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be 
your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary." The 
only way to repair a wrong is to cease from it. And 
however a foreign Syria may confederate with a sec- 
tional Ephraim, to subjugate divided Judah, let us hear 
the word of God, and keep it. 

Such are some of the manifestations of God's retri- 
butive justice at work among ourselves. Such are the 
circumstances in which we are called to apply the prin- 
ciples inculcated in our text. Let the application 



24 

begin with us, and here. National though be the sin 
and retribution, we have already seen how it operates 
through individuals. Though national must be repent- 
ance and reform, they must be wrought in individual 
minds, and begin at the house of God. The prophet 
must sound the alarm, and the people of the living God 
follow his instruction. " Bind up the testimony, seal 
the law among my disciples." 



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